They had to wear something that was completely over the top to feel like they were George Clinton and a part of a legitimate movement and scene.
#Timelime of hip hop fashine full
Do you feel that it’s come back full circle in 2015?Įarly on, when Melle Mel and these guys were dressing extremely outlandishly, they were really aping what was going on in mainstream rock & roll or show biz culture. Historically, hip-hop artist always dressed their own way. For example, the picture of Melle Mel in the biker shorts and cowboy boots, which if he wore now in 2015 would cause everyone to freak out.
#Timelime of hip hop fashine movie
Most storytellers wouldn’t choose to start there when they talk about hip-hop fashion, but the movie brings up images of early hip-hop fashion where the style was outlandish and non-gender conforming. The film’s timeline starts with Little Richard as a forerunner of merging fashion and music. And while you can’t necessarily come off the street and be a rapper, anyone can wear something! So the energy of fashion makes a lot more things possible in terms of people feeling like, a) they can participate, and b) like they're a part of something bigger than them. When you think about punk rock, you're not just thinking about what you hear, you’re thinking about the visuals and the way people dressed. You have people who are fans of '60s music, psychedelic music, hippies and that goes hand-in-hand with the fashion. I think music has a heavy hand in creating all these opportunities. What was it about hip-hop that allowed so many black males to jump into the field and feel empowered to take it further? You talk about Sean John in the movie and how he was basing his clothing off of not just the streets but high fashion. The thing that really makes Fresh Dressed stand out is that you cover not just what fashion meant to black people as consumers, but how it eventually drove rappers and hip-hop lovers to become designers in our own right. I felt like this film was a great way to tell that story.
Of course, there's always peer pressure, you wanna fit in but I know as someone who grew up in the inner city that fashion means way more to us than it does to a lot of people. I also remembered how important it was to look a particular way when we were growing up. You couldn't be a rapper with much respect if you were considered a bum in terms of the way you dressed. Why did you choose to tell the story from this angle?Īs someone who's been writing about the culture for a long time, and before that as someone who actually grew up with the culture, I knew that there were a lot of ways into the hip-hop story and a lot of folks had gone into but fashion is one of the most important facets of it. Hip-hop's love affair with fashion is talked about a lot but the way that you approached the story and the things that you covered-from slavery to Lil Richard to the gangs of the South Bronx to Dapper Dan-were explored in a linear narrative that stretched further than just the genre of music itself.
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